Tribute to Mootilda

I'm sure you've heard by now that our community has suffered a great loss. Mootilda passed away on the 2nd. She will be dearly missed by everyone. She and I had been working on a project over a year and a half ago, and with the way real life always jumps in, we never got around to finishing it. I pm'ed her husband, Quatchi, and he was able to send me her files. Looking at it, we were very close to being done. It is my intent to finish our project and upload it in tribute to her.

Finally Fixed My Sunken Pets Bug!

Pets has never been my favorite thing to play, mostly because it has never worked right for me. The vast majority of the time my pets are half sunken into the ground, and when they aren't I've never been able to get a single one of them to go to their job. Last night I finally took the time to track down what was causing my sunken pets issue, mostly because 2 of my 3 testing lots both happen to have pets on them, and it was starting to get annoying. After 2 hours of the half and half method with an initial false positive, I believe the issue was Atavera's Animated Windows Fix. Strange huh? I thought so until I opened it up and found a few pie menus that were directly specifically at big dogs and cats. I unticked them, and removed a few of the pie menu stuff that doesn't have anything to do with anything (unless it's dogs sleeping in the bay window, which I've never seen, but I'll forgo to have open-able windows). While I was there I also took the Wash Window off only neat freaks, and made it available for everyone, because it's a fun thing to see. So far my pets are still above ground and I hope that really was the issue. The interactions they have are so cute! Maybe some day I'll figure out what's keeping them from going to their jobs. (Though, pet jobs as a concept is still pretty weird to me, so maybe I won't bother.)

Kickstarter Launch!

Hey guys! This is exciting! I launched a Kickstarter earlier today and I'm already 60% funded! I need your help to get the rest of the way there. Because I know dollhouses and miniatures in real life might not be your thing, I have rewards specifically geared toward you all! I'm offering to skype with you to create a sim object! Whatever you want, let's do it! To the Kickstarter!

Smallhouse Models - A New Dollhouse Furniture Business

So, it's been a while since I've visited my poor little simmies, but I have a half decent reason for it. I'm working on starting up a new business designing and creating contemporary dollhouse furniture! Current dollhouse furniture is by and small, Victorian, colonial, and the occasional 50s-70s pieces. I can't be alone in having no interest in these styles. I'd much rather have doll furniture similar to the real furniture that is popular now, you know, IKEA, mid-century modern, stuff from Target?

Right now I need your help simply to spread the word about this. I need more Likes on my Facebook Page for Smallhouse Models. You can follow along with my progress there.

I plan on running a Kickstarter in June and I really *really* need help getting the word out about it. I'm going to need about 250 backers or it's just not going to work. I realize doll furniture is a bit of a niche market, so I'm going to include rewards other than just the doll furniture I'm designing. I want to do photoshoots of my pieces and set them up as little 'I, Spy' rooms. These images will be made into postcards, greeting cards, and a calendar. I'll also be offering opportunities to design your own pieces.

Now, here's the exciting part for you simmers. I'm going to be making Sim 2 versions of all of my pieces and hope to release them during my Kickstarter on MTS as part of awareness and advertising. For anyone who backs a Design It Yourself reward, I'll be just as willing to make you a sim version instead of a real dollhouse furniture piece (or both).

Please Like my Facebook Page, Smallhouse Models. Please share it with anyone you know who is interested in dollhouses, enjoys backing Kickstarters, or would like a personal, custom Phae creation.

Keep on keeping on.

So I've been having some trouble keeping up with the deadlines for karen's contest, but I don't want to put aside on my uni hood just yet. I'm hopeful that I'll be done with this hood in time for my Creator Anniversary, but if you've been paying attention the last couple of years, that project almost always switches ideas at least 6 times before I finally post something. We shall see. I like the idea of doing a college for my 7 year anniversary, because it took me 7 years to graduate college. I'm also pretty busy doing designs for dollhouse furniture. I plan on having a Kickstarter for that in June, again, assuming I can keep up with it all. Lotta work goes into designing an entire house worth of furniture, regardless of scale. :P

Anyways, one of karen's venue options (I do love these, it got me thinking about all the flavor that is at a university) was a fountain. My hometown Purdue has some fantastic fountains that I've played in at least half the summers of my life. I wanted to see if I could create the Engineering Fountain, and I think I did a half decent job of it!

And here's a view of the state of my hood now. You can see the newly added UOA frat house from the application round, YamYad Bar from round 1, and the Fitness Park from the second round. Additionally, I've created Burnet Woods and I'm in the process of constructing Slayter Hill Amphitheater. My Uni is a complete mash up between Purdue and U.Cinci. How could I not? They were *my* universities! Make what you know! :)